Climate issue heats up –we’re halfway to disaster

GLOBAL temperatures have reached a record high and are halfway to reaching a "dangerous" threshold, the World Meteorological Organisation has revealed.

A new WMO report has found there has been a "relentless rise" in temperatures that is "fuelling climate change".

The report found for the first nine months of 2015 average global temperatures had risen to one degree above pre-industrial temperatures - halfway to the two-degree threshold that is considered to be the critical turning point.

The Greens have used to the report to call for more to be done in Australia to combat climate change.

WMO secretary-general Michel Jarraud said time was running out to prevent dangerous climate change.

"Every year we report a new record in greenhouse gas concentrations," he said

"Every year we say that time is running out. We have to act now to slash greenhouse gas emissions if we are to have a chance to keep the increase in temperatures to manageable levels."

Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters said the report was more evidence the world had to act.

"The World Meteorological Organisation is telling us that levels of all the major pollutants are continuing to rise. That's even more alarming when every extra tonne of pollution contributes to feedback cycles which warm the planet further," she said.

"Here we have even more evidence of the urgent need to act on global warming as it continues to compound, putting our very way of life in jeopardy."

Similarly a mapping system which American organisation Climate Central released showed images of major world landmarks, including Sydney Harbour, after sea levels had risen.

But the maps came under criticism from climate change denier Andrew Bolt who wrote in his blog there had been "essentially no warming for 18 years".

Mr Bolt said claims major cities could be underwater, as Climate Central claimed, was "inherently ludicrous and unsupported by the evidence".

Mr Jarraud said trapped carbon dioxide would remain in the atmosphere for centuries and even longer in the ocean.